British coachbuilder Radford Motors is entering Pikes Peak for the first time this year with a special version of its Lotus Emira-based Model 62-2. The chassis has been reengineered for the climb as has the engine, which is a further development of the Emira’s Toyota V6 based-engine. The Toyota 2GR-FE engine has been prepared for Pikes Peak by JUBU Performance, an  Austrian engine development company that also prepares the engine for the road going Model 62-2.

As normally used by Radford the engine is supercharged and produces around 600 bhp compared to 400 bhp in standard Lotus Emira trim. The Radford Pikes Peak version lifts output to 700 bhp, aided by lack of road considerations such as emissions and drivability.

The Pikes Peak engine benefits from high-flow injectors, more optimised CNC head work (chamber and ports), new tool-steel camshafts, titanium retainers and dual valve springs. The timing belt system is also based on wider belt and pulleys with uprated bearings. In addition the supercharger used for the 600 bhp Radford P62-2 road engine is modified. The ratio is updated and there are some did other tweaks to deal with the changing air density over the distance of the climb.

JUBU reports that, “On this Pikes Peak engine, the goal was to find the best from both worlds - drivability and big power. Even higher power would have been possible but we’ve found out that this would not directly have helped to get the car faster up the hill. Balance of power and drivability is key at Pikes Peak. Besides that, Radfords specification was to create a solid, powerful race engine that is still close to the already crazy powerful road engine”.

The challenges of cooling engines at Pikes Peak caused JUBU to design radiators and coolers which are 65% bigger than the Radford road car. It was explained that the low temperatures aren’t a problem from a cooling perspective, but the lack of air density at high altitude necessitates the large coolers.